


Simple Day

by TheHuskyDragon



Series: We’re all going forward/none of us are going back [12]
Category: Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, I never tag it but I don’t beta read this shit ahah, M/M, Sam Being a Dad, heartman rambling about skulls and then dying, higgs is generally >:( all chapter, lowkey tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:28:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22301086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHuskyDragon/pseuds/TheHuskyDragon
Summary: Heartman wants to test out Higgs’ capabilities. He gets distracted.
Relationships: BB-28 | Louise & Sam Porter Bridges, Sam Porter Bridges/Higgs Monaghan
Series: We’re all going forward/none of us are going back [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1551493
Comments: 1
Kudos: 91





	Simple Day

**Author's Note:**

> I!! Rushed this chapter :,) I was distracted and like... I must have some writers block bc I could NOT get into the right mind space for this :( it’s a shame bc I was really excited to have Heartman talk abt skulls,,
> 
> Title song from one eskimO 
> 
> I’m so tired...

Higgs wracks his brain trying to remember  _ when _ he bought the emulsion remover. Any other time, perhaps, he wouldn’t care, but he doesn’t want to spend ages trying to remove the prints. 

_ This is his fault for wanting to do everything himself, wasn’t it,  _ he thought to himself as he stepped into Lake Knot. The overhead voice obnoxiously telling his name. 

“I’m!— back.”

Sam was passed out on the bed, slumped on his side with Lou under his arm, lightly snoozing too. She shifts when Higgs enters the room but doesn’t otherwise wake. 

Was the remover going to be too strong of a smell for her? This was an enclosed space…  _ fuck _ ! Children were bothersome. He rips his shawl off and throws it to the end of the bed. When he turns around, Sam is blinking awake. 

“You’re back,” he grumbles, sleep still heavy in his voice. 

“Clearly,” Higgs replies, “you miss me?”

“Of course I did. I like being with you.”

_ Well _ . Higgs’ face reddens. He certainly didn’t expect that answer. Higgs quietly clears his throat as he walks over to the sink. He tells himself that remaking the apparel really  _ would _ be easier than trying this. He opens the bottle of the emulsion remover and smells it. It really  _ doesn’t _ smell strong; which is good for  _ Lou _ , but bad for  _ efficiency _ . He scoffs and tosses the shawl on the sink. 

An intercom in the room suddenly sparks to life, “ _ Sam, Heartman here. _ ”

Sam immediately sits up and begins listening. 

“ _ Is Higgs there with you? I’d like both of you to come to my lab.” _

“Yeah he is,” Sam fills in while Higgs remains speechless. How long has there been an  _ intercom _ ? Are there  _ cameras _ ? “What’s all this about? Has studying my blood gotten too boring for you and Lockne over there?”

Higgs hears Heartman’s laugh over the intercom, “well, yes and no. I’ll explain more in depth face to face.” And the call ends. 

“How… how long…”

“Oh you didn’t know? Yeah there’s next to no privacy in these rooms, only the showers I guess.”

“Fucking  _ seriously _ ? They just  _ hear us fucking? _ ”

“Hey that’s their problem,” Sam says, “if they wanna listen to us bone,”

“Fwucking sewiouswy,” mumbles Lou, still half asleep. Higgs thinks of himself a great influence on the child. 

Higgs feels his face heat up further, not yet even cleared from Sam’s earlier comment. He’s not usually so…  _ reserved _ about his acts but there’s something about a corporation he  _ already _ doesn’t trust hearing him moan loudly. 

Oookay. New train of thought. 

Should he get more emulsion remover or new material for his shawl… it was about time to make a new one anyway. But the stripes were a  _ bitch _ to add… fuck. 

Sam’s beginning to put on his suit. 

“Wha— we're going  _ now _ ?”

Sam turns toward him with an arched brow. “Course. We got nothing better to do.”

Just then, Sam’s cuff chimes a familiar tune. A second later, Deadman speaks up. “Sam! Are you heading towards Heartman’s lab?”

“Yeah. Why, you want me to bring something to him?”

“Quite the opposite! I want you to have as little weight as possible. Your wound is barely healing and if I hear about you toting around more than—“

“Alright alright I got it.” Sam groused, pulling through long zipper together. “I’ll be fine,”

Sam dropped his arm, Higgs guessing that meant the call had ended. Cuff tech was so  _ unnecessary _ . Higgs has been doing  _ just fine  _ with both of his wrists free, now he’s being monitored twenty-four fucking seven. It’s aggravating. 

Sam begins dressing Lou, which is the odd thing. When he asks, Sam says that he’s bringing her because  _ it’s been too long since Heartman has seen her. _ Soon, the child is clad in a heavy, thick coat. Sam carries her himself. 

Higgs can’t bring his damn shawl for the better of him; who knows what will happen if some porter sees a terrorist with Sam. You know… doing  _ nothing _ . 

Luckily, he has another hood in case it rains. As they rise up the elevator, Sam immediately heads toward one of the trucks. It’s a long boring ride all the way up to Mountain Knot, and where was his lab? At least it won’t be too boring…

Though, before they begin their journey, Sam throws something into the back of the truck. “Floating carrier,” Sam answers before Higgs can even ask the question. “Thought Louise would find it fun while we climb to Heartman’s lab.”

On the way to Mountain Knot though, Higgs suddenly remembers why he  _ hates _ being a passenger while Sam drives. He’s  _ reckless— _ going as fast as he can, taking sharp turns… Lou, strapped in the middle seat, seems to be having a blast. She’s laughing and giggling in fits. Throwing her hands up.  _ At least someone can have fun, _ Higgs thinks as he white-knuckles the handle on the ceiling of the car. 

Sam’s head sharply turns to the side, peering out of the car, and he  _ slams on the brakes. _ Higgs can smell burnt rubber when Sam—  _ opens _ the  _ door _ ??

“Wait— Sam! What are you—“

The idiot has already jumped out of the car and jumped down the road. It was only perhaps a foot off the ground at this point. 

“I saw something!”

He sounds like a child. A child with a deep voice and thick body, but a too-excited child nonetheless. 

Higgs is helpless but to stare at the open door with Lou before Sam comes back. As he steps onto the highway again, he turns the container over in his hands. Eventually Higgs hears him throw it in the bed of the truck. It was a medium sized container, not too heavy but it clearly had something in it. 

“What’s wrong with it?” Higgs asks when Sam sits back down in the vehicle. 

“Nothing. Except it’s unmarked and untagged. I have no idea what it is.”

“We’ll see when we get to the lab.”

Sam hummed his agreement and began driving again. 

None too soon, they arrive at Mountain Knot. Except… Heartman’s lab wasn’t here. He opens the map on his cuffs— the only thing it’s useful for— and is able to locate two arrows. One is Sam and the other is his. Higgs  _ also _ realizes that Heartman’s lab is in the mountains. Which is fine, he’s always enjoyed some  _ fucking _ hiking. 

“We could take the zip lines or climb up there ourselves.” Sam offers as he straps the cargo to his back and holds Lou in his arms. Her cheeks are rosy. Sam pulls up a scarf that was around her neck to cover her face. 

“Zip… lines… I don’t think I’ve ever rode one.”

Sam smiles wide at that. The corners of his eyes wrinkle and  _ how the hell _ is that so cute? Sam’s just  _ smiling _ .  _ What the fuck.  _

“Oh you’ll love em,” he says as he makes his way out of the distribution center. Higgs doesn’t know how he hasn’t seen it before, large structures with blue lines connecting each one. “I don’t think one goes straight to the lab but walking won’t hurt too much.”

Higgs scoffs. Walking, like the mountains weren’t  _ treacherous _ all on their own. 

  
  
  


Higgs is glad he let Sam go first, because maybe then he doesn't hear the damn yell he lets out. These things are  _ terrifying _ and he’s helpless to follow Sam going  _ way too fucking fast way too high off the ground.  _

So  _ fuck _ those, he’d rather go through BT territory blind than ride on those— _ death traps _ again. He thanks some higher figure that he loosely remembers reading about that he can see—supposedly,  _ hopefully— _ is Heartman’s lab. Thank fuck. 

Sam’s laughing with Lou because of  _ course he is.  _ Higgs’ teeth chattering not just because of the cold. 

“Fun?”

“ _ Nightmarish _ .” Higgs says, tone clipped. “How can you— whatever. Can we get going now?”

He drops Lou in the walkway he’s already cleared. Lou waddles back and forth and attempts to pick up snow with her little fingertips, covered in just as small gloves. Why are things so small, so  _ cute _ ? “You wanna go sledding Lou? You remember doin this in the pod? That was fun,” Louise makes some vague noise that might be a word. 

Sam removes the floating carrier easily, like it's second nature— it probably is. He throws it on the ground and it unfolds itself. It’s only when he connects it to himself does it begin to float. Trailing in the wind, there's chiral smoke, melting away the snow. That… can’t be healthy. The snow is deep and Higgs can feel it through  _ his Bridges-issued Boots.  _ Lou, being a tiny child and bundled up to hell and back, is set on the carrier herself. Higgs knows that she can barely walk on flat ground, and she will just flop over in the snow. 

How would timefall effect her? Higgs ponders the question as they begin moving. It’s been… _years_ probably since Higgs has been in the snow, walking like some civilized _non-DOOMS-suffering_ _civilian_. 

Shit. Didn’t he used to be  _ good _ with words? Did being with Sam lower his IQ? Destroy brain cells?

Would time fall just affect her skin? Or would it advance her whole body? And how so?

He  _ knows _ timefall— the  _ whole  _ death stranding probably better than anyone in America. So why the hell doesn’t he know how it’ll affect a child? He wants to…

No.  _ No _ ! That’s— not a good thing to think. 

Suddenly, the two men hear a low trembling growl. It echoes off the bare black rocks of the mountain sides. 

Sam looks around confused, moving to step in front of Lou. Higgs knows  _ exactly _ what the sound is, and he sighs loudly. 

“Damn it all, come out already!” Higgs calls, throwing his arms open. They’re at one of the many summits of the vast mountains, and somehow he can’t see a giant black figure against blinding white. 

His lion, Mekal, appears almost out of nowhere. Jumping out from somewhere and jogging ahead of them. He just—  _ does whatever he wants!!  _ It’s like being exiled out of his own  _ Jerusalem— _ being a herald of the extinction to be clear— suddenly Mekal is his own damn  _ being _ . He used to follow Higgs like a loyal slave, a damned dog even. Now? He’s a  _ cat _ . 

It’s his own fault. 

Higgs and Sam are just finished of descaling the steep cliff of the mountain, Lou trailing close behind, when they reach the scan lines. Soon, their walking up the crisp stairs to the building. The stairs are relatively snow free, despite being obnoxiously high in the mountains. 

Oh, and the black heart as a crater in the distance is something too. 

Sam doesn’t check in at the terminal. Even with the unmarked cargo. He takes a step, but then turns around to Lou. He picks her up, taking off the hood and gloves for her, and folded the carrier up. Higgs wordlessly follows as he opens the first door down a hallway. The whole floor is padded. It makes it oddly difficult and super  _ fucking _ annoying to walk on. 

Sam’s been baby talking Lou about how  _ she hadn't seen him in months _ and  _ how excited he’ll be to see her  _ and  _ hopefully he’ll be alive when they come in.  _

Crossing into the threshold, he immediately sees an off-white statue of a BT. Impressively detailed too. To the left, there's various picture frames. 

Walking a few more feet, Sam called out to Heartman. Higgs has already seen the man when they were in Mountain Knot, and he looks… very similar, saying he changed at all. 

Heartman’s eyes widen behind his glasses. “Sam!” He says with a big smile. Upon seeing who Sam’s carrying, his smile widens further. “And!! Who’s  _ this _ !!” He opens his arms to accept Lou. She happily crawls into the man’s arms as he punches her cheek. Just like  _ everyone fuckin else! _

“It’s Lou! Louise!” Sam replies. He’s happy, smiling from ear to ear— a rare treat— showing Lou off like a third grader with an action figure. “She’s grown so much, hasn’t she?”

“She’s out of the pod? And she’s fine? And you!”

Heartman suddenly turns to Higgs. He walks toward him till they’re face to face… well. Higgs is still a few inches taller than him. “ _ You _ ,” he says, a spark in his eyes, “are  _ magnificent _ . Do you know how much potential you have?”

“Well, shit. You’re gonna make me blush,” he says sarcastically.  _ Oh, how many times has he heard  _ that _. _ In rolling his eyes, his gaze lands on a white skull on a shelf, backdropped by bookshelves. Around it, there’s multiple other skulls. Heartman notices, and walks toward the shelves. 

The skull is that of some canine. Long snout, front facing eyes. 

“Gray wolf, perhaps about ten years old. This?”

The next one he picks up is  _ large _ , boxier snout, thick teeth. Thick jaws. “A bear.”

Heartman readjusts Lou on his hips and sets the skull down. He gives higgs a thumbs up. _ +20 likes rewarded to Higgs _ . “That’s correct,” he congratulates. The next one is very much smaller, enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Large teeth coupled with an overbite, outward cheekbones. It’s long too, and has a flat snout. 

“A rat? Or some rodent, hard to tell.” _ +20 likes rewarded to Higgs. _

“Correct too. And…  _ this one. _ ”

It’s— the next one he shows is just some normal canine skull. Definitely a dog as the snout isn’t long. Despite the skull looking roughed at the edges, and maybe a little stained. It’s old,  _ very _ old, but still impressively well kept. Next to it, however, was a skull of the same size, but the snout was curved  _ down _ . From the top of the cranium to the top of the snout, there’s a 45 degree angle. That… can’t be real. It  _ has _ to be fake.. or altered or… something. “I… that isn’t real.” Higgs reasoned firmly

Higgs crossed his arms as Heartman picks up the—embarrassment of a skull. 

“You can’t tell what this is? Well, most people probably can’t. Most dogs have gone extinct, both in the death stranding events, and the result of other extinctions. It’s odd really, seeing so few people without  _ ‘man’s best friend’ _ .” He gives Lou back to Sam and walks around, still holding the skull. “Back in the day, there were hundreds of breeds, and many more cross breeds. Skulls of different sized, stature of many types…

“Many times, we’d cross abominations of breeds, dogs with pushed in snouts or deformed legs. Breeds with next to no body fat for optimal running. Breeds with  _ too much  _ skin where they were covered in wrinkles. Sam. Could you guess what this dog could be?”

_ So it  _ is _ real. _ Sam shrugs, “got no clue,”

“Here, I’ll give you options; a German Shepherd, a bull terrier, or gray hound?”

Higgs, helpless as always, has no clue. He doesn’t  _ care _ about dogs, only saw them as clumsy nuisances. Cats—  _ felines _ on the other hand... “man, I haven’t seen a dog in years. Gray hound?” Says Sam. 

Heartman gave Sam a thumbs down with a frown. “Bull terrier. People apparently loved the slanted snout, and they kept selective breeding. This isn’t even the worst of it. Pug— and similarly figured dogs, have such disfigured faces that they  _ naturally _ have breathing and respiratory issues.”

While Heartman is rambling, Higgs is looking at the array of skulls. He sighs…  _ oh to have this many. _ They all look so…  _ immaculate _ . Fake, but all real. On a separate shelf, right next to the first, has felidae skulls, of all sorts. Feline skulls are more or less harder to tell apart. All domesticated cats have similar sizes and general shapes, completely unlike dogs. Though big cats on the other hand, are a little easier to identify. Domestic cat… tiger… leopard… cheetah. Thick teeth to match powerful jaws. Teeth fitting together so perfectly… wide eye sockets and nostrils. 

Held up on a stand on the floor, is an  _ ancient _ , brown skull. It’s of a saber tooth tiger—well,  _ Smilodon _ , not a tiger. The skull has protruding canine teeth, rarely used for killing, most interestingly.  _ Ohh… _ he should have a BT catcher with the skull of a Smilodon… wouldn’t she be beautiful…

“Fan of cats, I presume?” Heartman pipes up, suddenly right behind him. Higgs jumps a mile high, having been too engrossed in the displays. 

“I had… many books growing up.”

Heartman opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by the AED on his front: “five minutes to cardiac arrest. Please hold on to something secure.”

“Ah,” he starts, “I suppose I got carried away… I had you come here to see of Sam’s BT killing techniques can compare to yours.”

Higgs smiles, letting out a single chuckle. “Oh, I don’t need blood grenades or acidic piss to deal with BTs… in fact, I can…” he pauses to find the right word, “ _ control them _ , more or less.”

“You can? Well, I suppose having high DOOMS helps, yes. Do you know your level?”

Higgs groans in his throat, annoyed. “That’s the  _ thing _ . Ever since I was revived, disconnected from…  _ Her _ ,” here, everyone in the room understood who it was that remained unnamed, “I’ve been nearly set to zero.”

“Nearly?”

Higgs looks around, “yes, I’m amble to procure catchers but… where is.. he. Hm.”

“Two minutes until cardiac arrest.”

“Oh damn this thing! It’s been more of a bother to me lately than anything.” Heartman goes to lay on the chaise lounge that’s parallel to a blacked out window. Between the wall-sized window, there’s multiple monitors connected to a heart monitor. In the air, with the wrist that’s bound to the cuff, Heartman types a long number into the air, among other things. 

“One minute remaining, please hold onto something secure.”

“If you two— three, really— could stay here while I visit the Beach, it should only take three minutes. Then we can discuss further what your capabilities are and how they affect BTs, yes?”

Sam settles himself on one of the couches. Entirely like he’s done this before. Lou falls onto her hands and knees on the padded floors, and crawls to Sam. She attempts to climb onto the couch herself. With only a little help from Sam, she makes it up and sits down next to Sam. 

“Thirty seconds to cardiac arrest. Please hold onto something secure.”

“Hope you find em, Heartman,” Sam says as a goodbye with a raise of his hand. Is that  _ seriously _ what this whole thing is about. He’s built his entire life around this?

“I hope so too, Sam. Someday I’ll be lucky,”

With the last ticking seconds of life, the man reaches over to the table next to him, and resets the chiral hourglass, then falls back and goes still. 

What an odd man. 

**Author's Note:**

> Higgs-the-god is my tumble   
> Also @/thehuskydragon is my twit and I,,, almost never actually talk on there but someday I Will and be over for y’all


End file.
